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Halo 3 Beta Roundtable: Week Four

Sterling McGarvey, Associate Console Editor, 0.4945: While Gabe has escalated his K/D ratio, I continue to hover near the halfway point. At this point, I've accepted the fact that I'm not going to get better throughout the beta with just two days left, but hey, that's life. In the meantime, accepting that I'm going to be the team albatross (as many of you who've participated in 'Spy-Hunter have pointed out) has sunk in, and frankly, I'm becoming interested in Stupid Halo Tricks. Given that everyone else has now really gotten into launching vehicles off of the Man-cannon in Valhalla, I've now decided that it's my favorite new activity, especially since I don't run the risk of being driven off a cliff the way I would in MotorStorm.

I'm not suffering the withdrawals that my compatriots are having, but that's also likely due to the fact that as the beta has raged on, my office responsibilities have ramped up, and frankly, I just haven't sat down to jump in and play much outside of 'Spy-Hunter. I wish that my kills translated into skills, like in Crackdown, but eh, what am I talking about? I'd still never be able to upgrade. I'm just biding my time for late September so that I have a few weeks of play with friends before the tidal wave of fourth quarter releases washes what skills I have out to sea. I suppose I'll get a few more rounds in before it's over, if nothing else, to enjoy stuff like Scooter's crazy strategy of dropping the Grav Lift down the High Ground hatch in Territories.

I suppose that the most important thing to say at this point is that for those of you who've twiddled your thumbs on buying Crackdown and don't care about the beta, I guarantee you that this time next week, you'll have no problems finding a used copy. Also, for those of you who'd thought about trading in your copy of Crackdown, it's too late. You're so getting rochambeau'ed on your trade-in credit.

Patrick Joynt, Associate Console Editor, 0.5699 Well, it's all over but for a last look back, another Top Ten, and a few bittersweet months of waiting. We'll take a more retrospective, reflective look at the beta next week, and I'm sure most of you have heard us go on (and on) about the beta on the podcast. For now, I'm just going to look at the next few months as a chance to really hone some skills in Halo 2.

In our Shane Kim interview, he discussed how the beta wasn't a marketing tool, that it was really being done as a tech test. That may be true, but I haven't encountered as effective a marketing tool in a long time. The beta put forward quality gameplay, and that's about it. No super-new graphics, no huge changes in design. And I, for one, fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Although the beta's state isn't really indicative of the final game -- or even the current build of the game at Bungie! -- it's a testament to the value of quality. The core gameplay, the 30 seconds you repeat over and over again, are very, very fun here.

What I'm really going to miss is the fact that the beta finally had the population to allow for real matchmaking. I was finally playing against people roughly my skill (although not during 'Spy-Hunter, you murderous readers). More than anything else, I'm really looking forward to seeing how well the final game manages to match people together with other players who are just good enough to force everyone to improve. Quality matchmaking would mean that even the newest players could step into a round of Halo 3 and have a good time, rather than be intimidated out of the game by an immediate multiple head-shot. We'll be back with a final analysis of the beta next week, but for now it's off to the 360 for a last few days of beta time!